Totally Inexcusable

The Minnesota Vikings embarrassed me as a fan with their crappy, half-assed effort in the first half against an awful Chicago Bears team playing out the schedule on Monday night. A Chicago defense missing many of their regulars, and without their best wide receiver.

The Vikings seemed to get some dignity back in the second half and forced a 30-30 tie in the final seconds, but kicker Ryan Longwell and the special teams cost them this game (and of course the Adrian Peterson OT fumble didn't help either). Longwell missed an extra point, and the special teams gave up three long kickoff returns on short kicks that Chicago turned into big points.

The New Orleans Saints were HANDING the Vikings home field throughout the playoffs and they wouldn't take it.

It was simply an inexcusable loss to a bad football team. The Vikings had everything to play for, the Bears had nothing but pride on the line. And right now, they seem to have more of it than the Vikings do.

New Orleans now gets the home field advantage in the NFC, and the Vikings need a Dallas win over Philly this Sunday in order to get the first round bye, as well as a win over the Giants.

So once again I'm forced to be a Dallas Cowboys fan this season.

But now you have to wonder even if the Vikings snatch away the first round bye, how far can they go in the playoffs? Right now, it would not surprise me one bit to see them get knocked out in their first home playoff game.

They haven't proven anything to me. They've left more questions unanswered, and they've embarrassed their loyal fans like me with their shoddy, lackluster play in three of the last four weeks.

And I have this terrible feeling they will rue the day they gave Brad Childress that contract extension earlier this year.